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Class Notes
Serving D.C.'s 'special' kids
(Published November 3, 2003)

By MATT WENNERSTEN

What do you call a student who talks constantly in class? What about a student who never does any work? Or the student who stands up and starts wandering around the classroom?

There’s a whole alphabet to describe these students, starting with Annoying, Bothersome, Crazy, Disruptive and ending with eXhausting, Yelling and Zeroes up and down the grade book. Don’t forget the F, for Failing.

And, more often than not, the S in this alphabet stands for Special. Special education, that is.

Special in the dictionary means "different from others" or "extraordinary." Neither definition is negative, yet "special ed" is an unwanted label for students and a danger sign for teachers.

"This kid is special" is, for too many teachers, a shorthand for "headache."

What’s really going on?

Special education is defined by Federal Law 102-109, also known as IDEA: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The key word here is "disabilities." The other defining idea (pardon the pun) about special education is FAPE: Free Appropriate Public Education. FAPE means that every disabled child is entitled to a free public education that accommodates the disability as appropriately as possible.

In other words, schools are required by law to provide whatever services are necessary for a disabled child to receive an education as similar as possible to regular students, at no cost to the parents of the disabled child. In practical terms, this means that the disability of a child should be handled with as few restrictions (such as separate rules, separate classroom, etc.) as can be.

Which brings us back to the Aggressive, Bad Child, Defying the rules, Enraging the teacher and Failing. This student is in a regular education class, as that is the least restrictive environment for the child’s education. This student has a disability, which causes him or her to behave differently (exceptionally!)

The fact is, these students’ needs are not met by regular instruction. Is it a surprise when they prevent others in the classroom from having a smooth learning environment? All kids act out when they’re frustrated, as do many adults. The teacher is upset. The other kids in the class are slinging insults: "You moron." Teaching is stopped. Learning is stopped. Surely most teachers are trained to handle this stuff. Surely special ed teachers are on hand to provide assistance and accommodation to the special child. Surely this happens in only a few classrooms, right? Right?

Students are only classified as "special education" if they have been identified as having a disability. What does this mean? Some disabilities are what most people think of as handicaps: Hearing Impaired. Visually Impaired. Restricted Mobility. Mentally Retarded. We assume that these are easy to spot and easy to accommodate, although a student who is constantly talking and bored might be talking because without glasses, they can’t read what’s on the board, and they’re too embarrassed to admit that they can’t follow what’s going on in class. Other disabilities are less physical: Autism, Distractability, Attention-Deficit, Hyperactivity, Dyslexia, Emotional Disability (e.g. inability to manage conflict), etc. The range is from Discalculia (can’t do mental math) to Psychosis (can’t understand reality). What’s worse, it’s hard to tell if a kid is just acting the fool or if they have a real problem in their brain. Good thing there is an identification process.

The identification process is no joke. Students must be observed repeatedly by teachers, support staff and administrators. The students are then assessed using a variety of tests, including a psychological evaluation. It’s actually quite hard to get your child classified as special ed. When the process is working correctly, the only kids who are classified are those who have real disorders. In other words, not your run-of-the-mill pain in the behind kids, but kids with documented learning disorders, kids with real brain dysfunction, kids who need different instruction (perhaps because they are so intelligent that they have mentally withdrawn from an unstimulating environment). Well how many of those are out there? How about a lot more than 10 percent? Last year, in my regular math classes, 17 percent of my students were special ed. That’s about 1 in every 6.

Many of these 17 percent are well-behaved, studious kids. Not every disability causes a behavior problem in the classroom. Many others of the 17 percent were almost impossible to handle. The requirements of the IDEA law are stiff. Special ed teachers are swamped by legal documents, lots of kids and few resources. General ed teachers like me don’t have a lot to go on, either – many kids don’t have documents which describe what is going on with them, or if they do, the behaviors are hard to handle. "Student has a learning disability. Student requires additional time to complete a test." Seems simple, yet the student has other classes to go to, and for some reason won’t come before or after school. The student fails the first few tests, and, after enough failure, the kid gives up, is bored in class, and becomes hell on wheels.

The bottom line is, the idea is that kids are in special ed for a reason. These kids have a disability. Often, these disabled kids are as smart or smarter than other kids. They’re almost always more interesting personalities. It is a fact that they need accommodation, something different or extra than regular kids, to be successful in the classroom. General education teachers aren’t well trained to handle it, if they understand it at all. Special education staffs are over-stretched. The kids aren’t usually able to explain well what they need. Tremendous conflict is created in the classroom. Children don’t learn. And that’s the most unexceptional and disturbing thing of all.

***

Wennersten is a third year mathematics teacher at Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights and a graduate of the D.C. Teaching Fellows program (http://www.dcteachingfellows.org). Please send stories, comments or questions to mwenners@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator